Excerpt from a book by my favourite MFU writer

[C.O.U.S.I.N.]

Napoleon shook his head. "The cold," he said sagely. "Wolves don't hunt when the temperature gets below freezing."

Illya looked at him in amazement. "You're thinking of rattlesnakes. Wolves just get more active when it's cold. I remember when I was a little boy in Siberia, being chased by a pack of wolves all the way from Yakutsk to Kirensk in the middle of winter—and the temperature was about forty degrees below zero."

"Oh, come on," said Napoleon. "It's seven hundred and fifty miles from Yakutsk to Kirensk."

Illya shrugged. "Well, we were on a train...."

"And the wolves chased you at sixty miles an hour for seven hundred and fifty miles?"

"Twenty-five miles an hour—this was the Trans-Siberian Railway. And I don't know if they were the same wolves all the way; maybe they ran in shifts and slept in the baggage car."

Napoleon gave up and started laughing. "Never mind," he said. "Besides, the last time you mentioned it, you were a little boy in the Ukraine."

"We moved around a lot."

— The Vampire Affair (#6) by David McDaniel

@темы: Illya Kuryakin, Napoleon Solo

Comments

[NikaDimm]

[lindafishes8]

C.OUSIN

You've posted my favorite passage from that book! We have been reading it in Mrs. Waverly's Afternoon Tea and Book Club. I first read it when it first came out back in the 60's and have a copy around here somewhere.

Just finished baking a recipe of Russian Tea Cake cookies for Christmas. They're a shortbread cookie made with black walnuts. Yum!

[CatMari]

Ilya such Ilya Oh, those harsh Siberian wolves

[Лимбо]

Илья не упустит возможности потроллить Наполеона
C.O.U.S.I.N., спасибо за отрывок!
lindafishes8, как интересно! А откуда у вас рецепт этого печенья? Вы его часто используете?

[mrK]

Илья тролль

[lindafishes8]

Limbaugh

Lindafishes8, how interesting! And where did you get the recipe for this cookie? You often use it?

It's from the Betty Crocker Cookbook (Well known in America). I love this cookie, also called "Snowballs" as it's round and rolled in powdered sugar, and make it at Christmastime. I use black walnuts in the recipe.

[C.O.U.S.I.N.]

lindafishes8, awww, I'm always happy to meet people who were watching the show when it came out! I love David McDaniel's books, they're so good! He really did write Napoleon and Illya very well and this passage is one very good example. But it's especially hilarious for me, because my family lives in Yakutsk And I have travelling via Trans-Siberian railroad in my plans. But there's no railroad in Yakutsk even now, sadly, though they promised to build it years ago. So, Mr. McDaniel made the reality in his books a lot better than it really is. It's so true to the spirit of the show, it makes me soppy.

[lindafishes8]

C.O.U.S.I.N.

"He really did write Napoleon and Illya very well and this passage is one very good example."

I loved this book, however, McDaniel's seemed to make Illya and Napoleon "clueless" at times, like they are unable to put the clues together. They are trained international spies! Our agents seemed to believe the local lore and I found that hard to believe. What was the purpose of the other character Solo met in the library?

[C.O.U.S.I.N.]

lindafishes8, I think, the character from the library was one of McDaniel's friends from real life)) Maybe I just imagined it, but I think I've read about it somewhere.
Well, they are not more clueless than in s3, at least))) I just enjoy their dialogues, that's the whole point for me.

[lindafishes8]

COUSIN

I think, the character from the library was one of McDaniel's friends from real life)

I did not know that.

Well, they are not more clueless than in s3

So true and I take issue with most of those writers as well, but not with "The Concrete Overcoat Affair" which was Season 3. That ep was the best. Jack Palance played the bad guy-Strago in Concrete Overcoat. Palance was born in the Ukraine. Kind of an odd fact as Illya may have been born there.

[C.O.U.S.I.N.]

lindafishes8, wow, I didn't know about Palance! I know about George Sanders tho, he was born in Russia as well. I adore The Concrete Overcoat Affair! I love all Peter Allan Field's episodes))